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The Suns entered the final hours before the trade deadline not expecting to broker a deal by today’s 1 p.m. deadline, but they remain a possible player because of their cap space, Emeka Okafor’s expiring, insurance-protected contract and precarious playoff position.

Bold moves like acquiring the Los Angeles Lakers’ Pau Gasol and Cleveland’s Luol Deng have been among the wide scope of trade rumors associated with the Suns, along with more subtle moves for frontcourt help like Boston’s Brandon Bass and the Lakers’ Jordan Hill.

The Suns’ front office has worked to put the franchise in a situation with cap space to make a free-agency push or trade taking on money in July. It also stands to recover $5.8 million in insurance payout if it holds onto the contract for Okafor, who is not playing this season due to a neck injury. There have been deliberations about seeking short-term help for this team’s surprising run and adding a young piece that could be part of the future or standing pat and letting the team’s strong chemistry stay intact as young players gain experience.

Not the typical play

When many coaches draw up a final play to tie or win, it is often an isolation play for one player or a two-man screen set.

Trailing by two with 17.8 seconds remaining against Denver on Tuesday, Suns coach Jeff Hornacek drew up a play that involved everyone on the floor and wound up with an open 19-foot shot by Channing Frye. He missed but the play scurried the Nuggets defense enough that P.J. Tucker slipped past Wilson Chandler on the baseline for a tip-in, which missed and was rebounded by Markieff Morris shooting past J.J. Hickson for the tying score.

“It’s easy if you have that star player that you know he’s going to get a great shot,” Hornacek said. “I think a lot of coaches think the more you pass around, if you have to make three or four passes, the bigger opportunity for a turnover or somebody knock it loose or something not go right. In that case (Tuesday night), we drew it up and we felt that we might get something good out of it. If it wasn’t a layup, then someone is going to get a good shot. To their (Suns players’) credit, we haven’t run that a lot – that particular set-up – so they did a good job in the time out of paying attention and talking about the timing and when they should go and executed it.”

Tucker’s flop fine

The $5,000 fine stung P.J. Tucker enough, but what hurt Tucker even more is the insinuation that a proud defender and tough guy is a flopper.

After getting a flopping warning in the previous game against Miami, Tucker was fined by the league for flopping in Tuesday night’s game at Denver when Nuggets power forward Kenneth Faried fouled him from behind on a rebound. Tucker stumbled into the stanchion without much of a shove in the back. Tucker said he “fell kind of funny” and “sold it a little bit” but was definitely pushed.

“I’m still going to play like I play,” Tucker said. “It ain’t going to change nothing.

“Me getting fined $5,000 for flopping is something that couldn’t be so opposite of how I play. It’s more the implication that I’m a flopper. I think that bothers me more than the actual fine.”

Free throws

The Suns announced a marketing partnership Tuesday with the Rattlers, who they owned from 1992 to 2005. The Gorilla Greenhouse will be redesigned and the Suns will have in-game Rattlers video promotions.

• Boston coach Brad Stevens on Celtics guard and Phoenix St. Mary’s High graduate Jerryd Bayless, a midseason acquisition: “One of the things I really like about him is he’s clearly a competitor. He doesn’t like to lose.”

• Stevens on Suns point guard Goran Dragic: “If there was one guy who should’ve been an All-Star that wasn’t, when you watch, it was him. I don’t know who was on it and who you would’ve taken above, but he clearly deserved to be honored for his play.”

• According to Elias Sports Bureau, Gerald Green’s 36-point game in Tuesday’s win was the first time a NBA player had scored at least 36 while playing 30 minutes or fewer of an overtime game since Denver’s Mike Evans on March 1, 1985. It is Green’s first season with 15 20-point games since he was with Boston in 2006-07.